Faithful Priest | 1 Samuel 2:27-36

[music] Let's open our Bibles together to 1st Samuel chapter 2. As already mentioned, tomorrow we begin the um the worship conference. And I think it would be a blessing if you wanted to be here with us for that night. um you know, we open it up to you if you'd like to be here and uh just to to worship and to spend some time. And I'd love to have you. And that would be again that would be tomorrow, tomorrow night. Um tonight we're going to be looking at 1st Samuel 2:es 27- 36. And so I'll introduce our passage by simply reading um verse 27 giving you obviously as I normally do some background and I'll develop it and then we'll move on through these uh verses before us today and uh we'll be looking at verses again 27 through uh verse 36. So at verse 27 here in 1st Samuel chapter chapter uh 2, it reads, "Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, thus says the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when you were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?" And so let me give you the backdrop, develop an introduction to this. Eli the priest has two unsaved sons. Verse 12 refers to them as being corrupt. They were priests yet they didn't have the knowledge of God. As it says in verse 12, the sons of Eli were corrupt. They didn't know the Lord. And so what they were doing, and we saw this last time we were together, is they were basically they were robbing God. They were bullying as well as robbing the people. And to add to their sins, they were uh becoming involved sexually with some of the women. And so the result was that the people began to disrespect the offering of the Lord. And the Bible tells us very clearly the behavior of these evil sons, these unregenerate men who were serving in ministry. The result was that they were stumbled. It says in verse 17, "The sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. For men abhored the offering. and they despise the offering of the Lord. It says in verse 24 when when Eli was correcting them, "My sons, it is not good a good report that I hear, you make the Lord's people transgress." And so, as godly as Eli was at one time at least, he failed to properly discipline his children, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:15 that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. When it says foolishness is bound up in the heart, the word heart, this speaks of the inner person, the inner man, their will. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. Well, that wasn't taking place. His sons had been hardened in their sins and his sons were rejecting any correction. Now, the Bible speaks to us concerning human nature and all the way back in the book of Genesis in chapter 8 verse 21, just before the Lord brings the flood to destroy the majority of the earth and and uh the majority of those who were alive outside of Noah and his household. And it says in Genesis 8:21 concerning man, and we need to mark this in our hearts, every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And so for those who speak concerning how people are born good, that's only people who don't have children. That's all that is. Because it's been said that if your baby, even your baby, your infant, had the ability to to to kill you, they they would. And at at four or five months of old, you Oh, no. They would never do that. Keep something from them that they want and watch the rage. If they were old, they would gum you to death if they could get to you. I mean, babies can be really mean. They're like their moms. And so, oh, so what had happened is they were beyond repentance like in the days of Noah. Remember in those days that God was going to move to bring judgment upon the earth because of the fact of the inclination of man's heart being evil. And God was waiting. And God waited patiently in those days until he did bring judgment because God, we know, is long-suffering. God is patient. And so, he showed his patience in those days, in the days of Noah. But ultimately, he determined to bring judgment. The Bible says in Genesis 6:5, "The Lord saw how the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time, and went on into verses 11 and 12 to say the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and full of violence." And God looked upon the earth and saw that it was corrupt. All living creatures on the earth had corrupted their ways. Now the Lord had made it clear in Genesis in chapter 6:3. He had said, "My spirit will not contend with man forever. He's mortal. His days will be 120 years." So God gave him a space to repent. He gave them a time to repent as he does even to our day. Remember second Peter 3:9 where it says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. and said, "He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." And that's God's desire from the beginning. He's patient. He's long-suffering. He gives us space to repent. And sometimes we understand that and sometimes we don't. Sometimes we think that because he doesn't act immediately when we do something wrong, something sinful, something that we know is wrong. Sometimes we think that he actually approves of that or that he ignores that. But we need to realize once again that that is God giving us time to repent. And we don't take advantage of that. That's not something that we just take for granted, if you will. Romans chapter 2:4 asks a question. Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? So sometimes you may be doing something that you know is wrong. Nothing happens. There's nothing that causes you to pay any kind of penalty. And therefore you think, well, God doesn't notice it or he approves of it or it just doesn't really matter. And you don't understand it's his kindness that's leading you to repentance. He's giving you space to repent, giving you time to repent. And that was demonstrated once again during the time of Noah. But eventually he will bring judgment. In 1 Peter 3:20, Peter made mention of that. He said, "God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood." He waited patiently. And so what happens as an introduction, as a thought developing a little further later on, what happens when we're convicted? Do we ignore the conviction? Do we just continue on as if nothing's going to happen? Do we continue in sin? We need to remember that God will chasen us. And God calls us to repentance. Again, in Revelation 3:19, it says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent." Well, Eli's sons refused to. They refused to repent. God was giving them space, time for them to do that, but they refused. They didn't do anything. Eli had spoken. He had said, "You make the Lord's people transgress. I hear your evil dealings from all the people. You need to turn from these things the Father was saying," but he didn't act on it. And so the Lord begins to act. Verse 27 speaks concerning that. A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when you were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house." So God makes a determination. He's going to bring judgment on Eli and his sons. But before he does this, he sends a message to him through notice with me what he refers to in verse 27. He's referred to as a man of God. For those who might take notes, man of God is used to speak of a prophet in the Old Testament around 78 times. So it's a word that is used very often. It's spoke uh Moses was spoken of as a man of God. Samuel will be referred to as a man of God. King David and Elijah are referred to in that way. So God is sending somebody is the point he's making. He's sending this man of God to speak to Eli because he's preparing him for what is about to take place. Again, God has waited for some time. His patience has reached its end. You see, God's mercy is expressed in longsuffering. Again, he gives people time to repent because he wants all people to be saved to come to the knowledge of the truth. Again, in 2 Peter 3:15, consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Well, it seems that the Lord had waited patiently for Eli's son to repent. We had already seen in verse 22 that Eli was very old. When it says that, it makes me feel really bad because Eli was around 80. And I don't consider that old. I consider that to be kind of young and youthful. But then again, I'm deceived. He was around 80. That means his sons had been sinning terribly for some time. And God begins to act. He sends a prophet to rebuke Eli. Again, in verse 27, he makes a statement. He says to him, "Thus sayaith the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Didn't I clearly reveal myself to you?" Now, obviously, this is not the first warning. He had warn he was warned when he had heard of what his sons were doing. So the knowledge of their sins should have served as a warning by itself. When informed of this though, he acted. But I I mentioned this to you last time we were together. He acted, but he didn't do so decisively. Again, he had told his sons that he's aware of what they're doing. He told them that they were stumbling the people. But instead of acting quickly and instead of acting strongly, what he did is he allowed the sin to continue and to fester. And this sin began to infect the people. And the people began to despise the offering. Never think that you sin and it doesn't affect anybody else. Your sin impacts other people. Paul said a little levan will levven the entire lump. what you get away with, people begin to think God accepts, but God doesn't. And so Eli hadn't acted in the way that he should. And what happened is their their sin began to fester. It infected the people. They began to no longer give their offerings. They despised it. Should have done something. Ecclesiastes 8:1 says it like this. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. He didn't act in the way that he should have. He didn't move as quickly in this case as he should have. And so, they began to despise the offering. Now, commentators have said that that would have been what is referred to in the Old Testament as a peace offering. You see that in the book of Leviticus in chapter 7 11- 21. [snorts] And this peace offering at its most basic speaks of having peace with or fellowship with God. And so what's happening is this this free will offering is actually used as an expression for God's goodness, a great gratefulness for how God has been good. But they stopped giving their offerings because they knew that the offerings that they were bringing would have been hijacked by these people. And they thought it was better not to offer to the Lord than to have it abused. And that led to the the them not expressing gratitude to God for God's goodness. They stopped expressing gratitude. And they stopped expressing a desire for fellowship. And they wouldn't contribute because they didn't want to contribute to the sins of the priests. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14, "Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? And how can light live with darkness? They didn't want any fellowship with the darkness. They didn't want their offerings to be misused. They stopped giving. Obviously, we as believers are to be thankful. Of all people on the face of the earth, I think we are the most or we have, we'll put it this way, believers have the most reason to be the most thankful. Don't you think? I mean, consider what God has done in your life. You know, one of the things that turns people off more is a grumpy Christian. It really is a, you know, I've got the joy of the Lord. Yeah. Well, you're hiding it. I can't see it. You look at you've been IVed with lemon juice. I mean, come put a smile on your face. What's wrong with you? But of all people on the face of the earth, we should be most grateful. for just a moment. I'm not going to ask you to take a long time to do this. When I say that, I saying I'm saying it to myself. And I'm saying to myself, what was I before Christ? And what has God done with me since? What were you like before Jesus? What was it like with you? Where were you? How lost were you? How much trouble were you getting into? How much trouble was waiting for you? What had you been up to? How miserable were you? Because I I very seldom do I ever see, if I ever have, a very joyfilled person getting saved. Because when you're always running around thinking everything's a good day, sometimes fail to realize that it's really not. But a lot of people, you're at your lowest when you come to faith in Christ. You say, "Where am I going to go? There's no place to go but up. God, what are you going to do with me? God, I'm so lonely. I'm so hurt. I'm so lost. I've been ripped off. You start pleading your cause before the Lord. [snorts] And then God does a work in your life. God saves you. And this this this garment that you wore that was one of mourning is now exchanged for a garment of praise and thanksgiving. Sometimes when I just sometimes I get overwhelmed when I begin to think of how good the Lord has been to me. You've seen those of you members of this fellowship know that there are times that I when I'm teaching it it hits me and you're not even knowing why my tears begin to well it's because what God has done in my life, what he's given to me. And I just get overwhelmed when I think of the goodness of God. When I think of what God has done, he's been so good. Psalm 50:14 says, "It's good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, oh most high." Psalm 107:1, "Give thanks to the Lord. He's good. His love endures forever." So, they are neglecting fellowship with God, and they're restricting any thankfulness to him. God has given them time to repent, but they refused. And now he deals with it. Eli knew God was displeased with what was happening. He did nothing to stop it. Time has passed. So God sent this man of God, this prophet to speak to him. Verse 28. Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to offer upon my altar to burn incense to wear a before me? Did I not give the house of your father all the offerings of the children of of Israel made by fire? Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering which I have commanded in my dwelling place and honor your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people? So he confronts them for what they've been doing. He he reminds Eli of how good God has been to all of Aaron's descendants. He reminds him of how God had revealed himself while the nation was still in bondage. The Bible teaches us in the book of Exodus in chapters 28 and 29 and other places obviously that God had selected Aaron and his descendants so that they might be his priests. It says in Exodus 29:9, "The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. I gave to you the priesthood. You were in bondage, but I set you free. And God chose you to serve him. And this is an honor that you don't deserve, but you haven't seen the value of it. You see, God's desire was for the uh the nation of Israel to recognize themselves as being his special people, to serve him, and to love him. Again, in Exodus in 19:6, Exodus 19:6, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel. You're supposed to be a kingdom of priests and holy. Somebody said they should be both a kingdom and a nation. A multitude of peoples connected together. Not a scattered and disorganized people, but a royal nation using their own rights living under their own laws, subject in spiritual matters only to God and in things civil to every ordinance of man for God's sake. Now, for us as believers, by nature, we too were in bondage to sin, but we've been set free in Jesus Christ. And remember what Jesus said in John 8:36, "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2:9 spoke of this. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so he's reminding them of that. Did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to offer upon my altar to burn incense wear and if before me? Did I not give the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? I gave you freedom, but I also provided for you generously. You remember this is a nation and with the nation giving large amounts of sacrifice, the priests were very wealthy. They had been blessed. They had much. And again, by application, God has blessed us as believers. Again, we are a royal priesthood. We are a chosen generation. We are a holy nation. We are his own special people. We've been blessed in Ephesians 1:3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Is there a spiritual blessing he hasn't given to us? And Paul would say no. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. God has provided for us in every way possible. In 2 Peter 1:3 it says, "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and his virtue, his excellence." And again in 2 Corinthians 8:9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. You see, the Lord has made everything available to us, but sometimes we simply don't avail ourselves of it. I have a favorite story that I'll give right now. I stole it from somebody and it wasn't Holland. But I like the illustration. I've said it before. Most of you perhaps have heard it, but it comes to mind whenever I read concerning the things that the Lord has he has blessed us with everything about the young man who was serving his his time of service in the military and he came home and his mama he came to his mama's house and as he began to walk into his his his where his mama lived he the they had a a picket fence but the the gate itself was just kind of hanging. And so he he opens up the gate and he steps in and the grass and everything is overgrown. There are weeds everywhere. He walks up the steps and they're creaking and in a state of disrepair. He's been gone for a few years and the house has really gone down. And so he walks up to the front door. It has a screen door, one of those wooden screen doors, but the screen itself has been ripped. And he opens it up and everything is in disrepair. And he opens up, while he knocks on the door, mama opens the door. son, it's great to see you. Come on in. He walks in and he he says, "Mama, what happened?" She goes, "What? What do you mean what happened?" "Mama, what happened? Look at the house. Look at the yard. What's going on?" She says, "Honey, I don't have any money. I didn't have money to take care of this home." He said, "Mom, I've been sending you cashiier checks every month for my for my my my pay. I've been doing this for five years. every month I've sent you huge amounts of money you could have taken care of. She says, "I don't know what a cashier's check is, son." He says, "Mom, it's it." And she says, "Oh, you mean the envelopes with those pieces of paper? I just she where is it?" And she had taken him into a room where she had taken the cashier's check and she had wallpapered the bedroom with all these checks. And the obvious meaning of the story is she had all of these things, all that she could have had and more, but she didn't see the value of it. She never exercised the ability to use it. We have been given so much from the Lord that we just don't avail ourselves of. God is saying, "I gave you everything. Everything. All things that pertain to life and godliness, I gave to you. You have the power of the Holy Spirit. You have the word of God. You have church fellowship. You have everything. And you don't take your take advantage of what I've given to you. And God is rebuking the nation of Israel as he's rebuking Eli. You guys have not been grateful. You haven't been making your offerings. It's because you have a priesthood that has taken advantage of you. And Eli, you haven't taken care of that at all. You've honored your sons more than me. And you've left the people in spiritual poverty and they're not giving their offerings to me anymore. They're not having fellowship and they're not grateful. So he goes on in verse 29 and he says,"Wh do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering which I have commanded in my dwelling place and honor your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, my people?" Why have you done that? When he says, "Why do you kick at my sacrifice?" The words kick at speaks of an overfed ox or a donkey that has been pampered and has become unmanageable. It speaks of rejecting, rejecting the yoke. They tried to rid themselves of God's authority over them. So God is saying,"Wh have you treated my ordinances as a burden? This is how I've provided blessings for you. You've enjoyed benefits, but you reject my authority. Therefore, verse 30, the Lord God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before me forever. But now the Lord says, far be it from me. For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. In Israel, giving you a little more background, the priesthood descended from Moses's brother Aaron. And over time, Aaron's family line was broken and it had various lines of descent. So there are various lines that descend from Aaron that hold the position of high priest. And at this time, Eli is holding that. His line is holding that position. So God is saying that Eli's descendants will no longer hold this position. Now notice in verse 30, he says, "Those who honor me, I'll honor. Those who despise me shall be lightly dealt with. Your family hasn't honored me and I'm not going to honor you." As a matter of fact, verse 31, "The days are coming that I'll cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your house." Cut off your arm. That's What do you mean by that? It's a picture of cutting off his strength and the family strength. In Psalm 37:17, it says, "The arms of the wicked shall be broken. The Lord upholds the righteous." So the result of Eli not dealing with the sin of his sons is going to see the fall of he'll see the fall of his house. So when our children are undisiplined, let's make this practical. When our children are undisiplined, the result can be catastrophic. When our children are undisiplined, they grow to be rebellious and they reject authority. Is that taking place today? Yes. I have and I I won't, you know, I won't say a whole lot about this other than the obvious. It's very it's very sad to see that the children are actually ruling the parents and the parents decide to do whatever pleases the child. And because of the tragedy and the the the terribleness of so many broken homes, there are not fathers in the home that are dealing with the issues so that the kids have a a source of authority that helps them to understand what is right and wrong and someone who corrects them. I remember my son David when he was in his early teens. I'll never forget something he said to me. He said to me, "You know, Dad, if you weren't in the house," he says, "I would really take advantage of mom." And that's a teenage son speaking. And I said, "Yeah, that's that's probably true." But I said, "Good thing that I am here, you know, to teach you these kinds of things because it was just it's just a boy's nature to push and to test. And so what happens is when you have a home that doesn't have a dad or a dad who is really absent with authority, you end up with rebellion. You end up with pe with kids who are not being disciplined because the children learn discipline through instruction and example. And that's one of the reasons why God puts such responsibility on us as fathers, those of us who are because we have been given the task of bringing our children up in the faith. Remember Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." And so, we're to train our children up in the fear of God. And when we do so, we're teaching them that sin has consequences. In Proverbs 19:1 18, discipline your son, for in that there's hope. do not be party to his death. Their rebelliousness brought chaos and today rebelliousness brings chaos and disruption to the home of the family to our family and it also spills out into the community and then there's there's just bad that takes place. And what happens is the kids begin because they get whatever they want or take what they want, they begin to believe that they're entitled to get whatever it is that they desire. And that's what happened. We'll be seeing this uh with Hoffne and Phineas, the sons of Eli. They were taking what belonged to God and his people as well as abusing the women. And so God continues and speaks and he says in verse 32, "You will see an enemy in my dwelling place. Despite all the good which God does for Israel, there shall not be an old man in your house forever." This is going to take place. We'll see this in chapter 4. He says, "An enemy be you'll see an enemy in my dwelling place." The word enemy is in reference to what is about to take place. the the calamity that he saw would be this. The defeat of the Israelites, the capture of the ark of God, the death of his wicked sons, the triumph of the Philistines. You're going to see this calamity that's going to take place. And he speaks concerning the fact that there is an enemy. He said, "In my dwelling place," that would be the tabernacle. Your failure to discipline your sons will result in judgment to you. And there will not be verse 32, there will not be an old man in your house forever. Remember older men represent wisdom, a wisdom that comes through experience and age. In Job 12:12, it says, "Wisdom is with aged men with length of days understanding." Your house will lack a wise man to lead you back to God's blessings is what he's saying. Once again, today what we're seeing is, and this this this can sound I I I hesitate to say it because it can sound in a way that I don't intend it, but it's like this. There is a move, and it's it's not a new one, but it's it's very obvious. older older people are less regarded than younger. We know that. When's the last time um you see an older person going somewhere to try and make themselves look older? That just doesn't happen. What do they do? They go somewhere to try to make themselves look younger. Why is that? Because youth is an idol. Because people like youth. And that includes, and this is this is the point that can sound odd to you perhaps. People want young leaders, but I don't see anywhere in scripture that says the young should lead the old. I don't. What I see is wisdom is with the aged. Those with time and experience have the capacity to help other people to travel a road they've already traveled. And yet young people have a tendency, and that's not a knock on young people. This is just a fact. Younger people have a tendency wanting to listen to the wisdom of the younger. And yet the younger has no experience to tell them what the pitfalls of this may be. So they encourage them to do things sometimes that just are improper because they don't have the experience in life. And that flows into the church. When you look and see pastoral ministry in churches, very often the people that are being clamored for to be the teacher are younger people. Why? Because they have a lot of energy. They'll say, "Oh, they've got a lot of vision." Yeah, but they have no experience. And what happens is you'll line up behind the latest idea and fail to connect with the Lord. God has given to the older people who have walked faithfully with God experience and they can utilize that experience to help people to walk straight with the Lord. And what older people represent in the scripture is wisdom through experience and knowledge of God. And he's saying you're not going to have this in your house. You will not have an older man in your home. Your descendants, he says, are going to meet with untimely and violent deaths, and I'm going to cut them off. Verse 33, your men whom I do not cut off uh uh the men whom uh cut off from my altar shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. All the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. And so that is something that will take place. And we'll see. He said, "This shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, Anha and Phineas. In one day they shall die, both of them." That takes place in chapter 4. You'll see that at verse 11. But he goes on to say in verse 35, "Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house and he shall walk before my anointed forever. Eli, you and your family will no longer hold the office of high priest, but the priesthood itself will remain. And God is going to raise up someone who will faithfully do his will. One of the things to remember this is this. We're not indispensable. I remember a a very a very good Bible study teacher um U McGee Jay Vernon. How I wonder how many of you have even heard of Jay Vernon? How many? Some of you that old man was on every radio station in the world. Jay Vernon McGee. You know my beloved Get on the Bible bus. That guy, you remember him? Jay Vernon one day said something I'll never forget. He was he was I I really liked him and and he said he said when I got sick I I said to myself now who's going to carry on the ministry of the Lord? He said and God had to very very strongly let me know you're not the only one who preaches. There is always a replacement. There is always somebody else that God can use. So determine within your own heart that you're going to be that person that God will use. Be prepared to be used by God. Be prepared to be called into the game to play the position that you've trained for. When I was in little league, they put me on a team. I was on a team that my first year I was on this particular team. Um, out of 23 games in the season, three practice games and then 20 regular, I played out of 23 games, six inning games, a total of 10 innings. I sat there for all of those innings. And six of those innings was the last game of the season when it didn't matter whether we lost or won. I sat there on the bench holding my glove six innings a game for 20ome games just wanting to play. I wanted the opportunity and one of the things the Lord taught me through the and that was tough taught me in that and at that time I brought into ministry was always it's very simple have your glove and get ready to get in the game. Be prepared be warmed up. Be ready. I believe that God has people in this room here or people who are going to hear this if they're not hearing it right now. You need to be ready. Have your glove. Get ready. Get your uniform dirty when given opportunity. Be prepared because eventually what happens is that person who's in that position will be removed. None of us is indispensable. It may very well be that in this church even at this moment, I don't know, the next pastor of Calvary Chapel of Chino Valley may be here already. I just haven't seen him. John keeps saying it's him, but he's wrong. [laughter] Just be ready. None of us is indispensable. God has somebody that he can use at any given moment. Ask yourself if you're that person. Ask yourself, do you want to play? Do you want to be in the game? Ask yourself or are you content sitting on the bench? We had kids in the little league who didn't care if they played because we got snow cones at the end of the game. As long as they had their cherry snow cone, they were cool. I like the cherry snow cone. But I wanted to play. I made that determination when I got saved. I want to be first ring. I want to be used by the Lord. I want to get my uniform dirty and I want to be used by the Lord until he decides to remove me from the game. And then he'll bring somebody else who will take it further and farther than I could. Because we need to always remember that God, if he can't use you, will use somebody else. In 2 Chronicles 16:9, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. So the Lord is looking and be prepared. Isaiah 6:8 says, "I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, here am I. Send me. I want to be used." And so he's saying in verse 35, "The priest will do according to what is in God's heart and in God's mind. He's not going to disobey me." In other words, he's not going to dishonor me. Now, this priest, many commentators believe, well, perhaps this priest that he's speaking of is Samuel. Samuel was a Levite. That's probably not accurate because he wasn't a descendant of Aaron. Other commentators will speak of a priest by the name of Zadok. In 2 Samuel 8:1 17 that tells us that Zadok became priests when King David ruled. But what he's saying in verse 35 is he shall walk before my anointed forever. Now when he says that this relates to the Messiah, my anointed who will rule and reign on earth. Ezekiel 44:15 says, "The priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, sayeth the Lord God. And it shall come to pass, verse 36, that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, "Please put me in one of the priestly positions that I may eat a piece of bread." It's going to come to pass that those who gorge themselves on the sacrifices like his two sons had will end up begging for food. The Bible says as in Job 4:8, as I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble will reap the same. Let me close by alluding to something that I passed up and I'll return to and then we'll close with this. Eli did not discipline his kids. It's very common in ministry for a pastor bringing it to New Testament times to have difficulty with their kids. Sometimes people will make a judgment on the pastor and will say that the pastor neglected to raise the kids up in the faith of Christ. Sometimes the people who are there will say that the pastor is obviously disqualified because his children are not serving the Lord. Very often they'll quote Titus chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 3 to make a case to say that the pastor is disqualified. In the case of Eli as a priest in the Old Testament, Eli neglected to discipline his sons. God said, "You have honored your sons more than you honored me." That's where the judgment came because he may have spoken words of correction, but he never enforced it. And God saw that for what it was? You are taking care of your sinful kids and not honoring me, and as a result of that, I'm going to deal with you and your kids. But is that true with every parent who's a godly parent? Is it possible for godly parents to have ungodly children or children who go through a season of of just being rebellious? And the answer is it is very possible. As as I as a minister of all these years can can attest. I don't know and I know a lot of pastors. I just don't know of any who didn't have a run for their money with their children. I just haven't I just haven't met one. Now, there may be one here. Holland may be one of these people. He tells me he's perfect. He may very well be. I don't know. I know John's not. So, I I I just have never met a pastor, a minister who hasn't had a struggle with their kids. It's very human. It's how they respond to it that matters. Do they ignore it or do they do their best to deal with it? If they ignore it, they're disqualifying themselves because they're honoring their children more than they honor God. But if they work on it, if they do their best to enforce discipline and ministry, if do they pray with them, they they they spend time with them, if they do all the things they can to work with that child, I don't believe they're disqualified. I believe that that's part of the challenge of becoming a family the way God is going to bring it. Not to say that was his plan, but that what what God can do through that because what it does is it purifies you and it teaches the pastor or the minister or the person who's trying to raise godly kids. It teaches them patience and understanding. It teaches them grace. It teaches them love. It teaches so many things. Not to say that's the only way you learn it. And I'm not trying to make an excuse for those who have failed. I'm simply saying that I've never met anybody who hasn't had a difficult time raising kids. You You get married and you say, "Oh, I want to have kids." And my response is always, "Why?" Because because it's not easy. It isn't. It's not that it's not rewarding. It is. It's extremely rewarding. There's nothing like it to have beautiful children who move out eventually. I mean, that's a good thing. But the process, the process, it can be difficult. And every every parent knows that. You pray with them. You minister to them. You dedicated them to the Lord. You brought them to VBS. You took them to Sunday school. You served the Lord with all of your heart. And a certain point in their life, they turn away. I don't want your God. I don't want anything to do with them. You don't understand. And a lot of parents have gone through that. And as I was going through this, I was thinking, you know, I wonder how many parents who are here now or will hear this later on are thinking, I failed. Look at I I have sons like Hoffnne and Phineas. I And I would say don't condemn yourself. If you have honored your children more than God, repent, deal with it, and and do what God calls you to do. But if you haven't, hold on. Keep praying. Keep working, keep serving, and keep loving those kids. Keep working with those kids. Because I can tell you in my own family, it was difficult to try and pastor a church, be a husband, be a father was hard. And the failures that I had still haunt my heart. And I wish there I wish I could have been a better father, but I was the best I could be and I did the best I could and I held on. And now all four of my kids are serving the Lord. And I know that God works through those things. In the case of Eli, God said, "No, you have not taught them the right way. You have allowed them to infect and undermine faith in Israel. As a result of that, I'm removing you because you have honored your sons more than you honored me. Because the number one thing God calls us to do is honor him first. Honor him first. Do the best that you can. Hold on tight. Minister to them. Be available. My kids are older kids now, but I am still not only their father, I am still their pastor. I am still the one they come to and ask for spiritual advice. And I held on and I didn't let go. And yes, it can be tough. And yes, it can be hard. And yes, there's always people out there who will encourage you, step out. You have failed. And when I went through an especially rough time in in my ministry life, I went and spoke to my own pastor, Pastor Chuck. And I said, 'Am I disqualified as a pastor. I will step out of ministry if I am. And Pastor Chuck said, "No, you've done everything that you can to raise your children in the things of the Lord. Hold fast." And I did. And I have seen the victory of the Lord. I have seen what God can do. Some parents, I know the Lord laid this on my heart. I know he did. Some parents are going through that right now. They're thinking that you're nothing but a failure. But you know what? Hold fast. You will see the victory of the Lord. God has a way of taking those things that are so broken and healing them and giving to you the joy that comes after a night of crying. I'm telling you, hold fast to what the Lord wants to do and you shall see what God can do. I'm encouraging you in that [applause] because a lot of people right now are feeling like failures. In the case of of uh of Eli, God said, "No, you could have corrected. You brought dishonor. I'm removing from you the position you once held." But keep in mind, joy [clears throat] comes in the morning. Tears may may last for an evening, for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And hold on and watch what the Lord will do. Father, we bless you for the work of your Holy Spirit. Lord, we know that you are in control of all things and we trust you, Lord. As we look at the life of of Eli the priest and we see what happened with his two sons and the judgment that came because of his disregard for you, we would take that as a warning. I pray Lord that you would work at all of us. And I lift up this congregation. And I lift up to you right now, Lord, some who in this room are going through a tough time with their own kids. And I pray Lord that you would minister to them. I lift them and I pray for them Lord that you would strengthen them. That you would bring the children back. I ask that you would do that because it brings glory to you and it would bring such a joy to the parents. And Lord, I lift up our lives to you. I pray that you would work in us, every one of us, and that you would have your way. And even as our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed, there may be some right now in this room who need to get right with the Lord. And you want you want prayer. You want to get right with God. And if that's the case, would you raise your hand and let me pray for you before we close? Father, you see these hands. You know the reason they're being raised to you. I ask in Jesus' name that you would reach down and touch each person whose hand is raised. And Father, you would work in them. And may your Holy Spirit just give them a sense of freedom. May the blood of Christ cleanse them and may they have an awareness of your presence, Lord. As they yield to you right now in faith we receive. We turn from our sin. We turn to you, Lord. And I pray that you would just have your way in them right now. And we bless you, Lord. Thank you. You can put your hands down. There may be some right now who are going through an illness and you'd like prayer. May perhaps the Lord could touch you if you'd like. And you ask, would you raise your hand and let me pray for you? Lord, you see these who are going through illness. I pray in Jesus' name that you would reach down and touch them. Lord, you are a God who heals. We're asking that you would. May your Holy Spirit just rest on them right now. And Lord, bring them to health. Bring them to health so that they might just be able to serve you with more strength and renew the joy, Lord. And I ask that you would do so because it brings glory to you. By faith we ask. By faith, we would receive. trusting you to do what is right. We give you praise for this now and thank you. You can put your hands down. And Lord, I ask that you keep moving in us as we're about to leave in Jesus' name. Amen.